
In the service of life, caring for others is “the supreme law” that comes before all of society’s rules, Pope Leo XIV said yesterday. Source: OSV News.
“Imitating the example of Jesus, the Saviour of the world, we too are called to bring consolation and hope, above all to those who are experiencing discouragement and disappointment,” he said before reciting the Angelus with thousands of visitors gathered in the square in front of the papal summer villa of Castel Gandolfo.
Pope Leo arrived at the small hilltop town south of Rome on July 6 for a brief vacation until July 20. He celebrated Mass in the Church of St Thomas of Villanova yseterday, and then recited the noonday prayer from the steps in front of the papal villa under a sky that oscillated between dark rainy clouds and bright bursts of sun.
In his reflection before the prayer, Pope Leo spoke about the human yearning for eternal life, that is, “for salvation, for an existence free from failure, evil and death.”
Eternal life is “not something to be gained by force, begged for or negotiated,” he said. It is something to be “inherited” by God alone, as parents do with their children.
“That is why Jesus tells us that, in order to receive God’s gift, we must do his will,” the Pope said, which is to love “the Lord your God with all your heart” and “your neighbour as yourself.”
“In order to live eternally, we do not need to cheat death, but to serve life, by caring for others in this, our time together,” he said. “That is the supreme law that is prior to all society’s rules and gives them their meaning.”
“God’s will is the law of life that the Father himself was the first to follow, by loving us unconditionally in his Son, Jesus,” Pope Leo said.
FULL STORY
Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says (By Carol Glatz, OSV News)